John Singer Sargent: Painting Process, Pt. 1

Sargent's kidney-shaped palette which was found in his London
studio after his death. Brushes and paintbox from his Boston studio.

"When Mr. John Collier was writing his book on 'The Art of Portrait Painting' he asked John Singer Sargent for an account of his methods. Sargent replied: 'As to describing my procedure, I find the greatest difficulty in making it clear to pupils, even with the palette and brushes in hand and with the model before one, and to serve it up in the abstract seems to me hopeless.'

With the assistance, however, of two of his former pupils, Miss Heyneman and Mr. Henry Haley, it is possible to obtain some idea of his methods.

When he first undertook to criticize Miss Heyneman's work he insisted that she should draw from models and not from friends.

'If you paint your friends, they and you are chiefly concerned about the likeness. You can't discard a canvas when you please and begin anew - you can't go on indefinitely till you have solved a problem.' 

He disapproved (Miss Heyneman continues) of my palette and brushes. On the palette the paints had not been put out with any system. 'You do not want dabs of colour,' he said, 'you want plenty of paint to paint with.' Then the brushes came in for derision. 'No wonder your painting is like feathers if you use these.' Having scraped the palette clean he put out enough paint so it seemed for a dozen pictures. 'Painting is quite hard enough,' he said, 'without adding to your difficulties by keeping your tools in bad condition. You want good thick brushes that will hold the paint and that will resist in a sense the stroke on the canvas.'

To be continued

(Excerpts from "John Sargent" by Evan Charteris.)